Showing posts with label Kali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kali. Show all posts

October 17, 2016

Look Upon God as Mother


Sri Ramakrishna describes a spiritual vision: 
"The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kāli temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness - all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss - the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kāli temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother - even the cat."

Nectar of Self Awareness

I honor the God and the Goddess,
The eternal parents of the universe.

The Lover, out of boundless love, takes the form of the Beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar and share the same food.

Out of Supreme Love they swallow up each other
But separate again for the joy of being two.

They are not completely the same but neither are they different.
No one can tell exactly what they are.

How intense is their longing to be with each other.
This is their greatest bliss.
Never, not even in jest,
Do they allow their unity to be disturbed.

They are so averse to separation
That even though they have become this entire world,
Never for a moment do they let a difference come between them.

Even though they see all that is animate and inanimate, arising from within themselves,
They never recognize a third.

They sit together in the same place,
Both wearing a garment of light.
From the beginning of time they have been together,
Reveling in their own Supreme Love.

They created a difference to enjoy this world.
When that "difference" had one glimpse of their intimacy
It could not help but merge back into the bliss
Of their eternal union.

Without the God, there is no Goddess,
And without the Goddess, there is no God.

How sweet is their Love!
The entire universe is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the tiniest particle.

The life of one is the life of the other,
And not even a blade of grass can grow without both of them.

Only these two live in this house called the universe.
When either one is asleep
The other stays awake and plays the part of both.

Should both of them awake, the whole universe would vanish without a trace.

They became two for the sake of divine play,
But in every moment they seek to become one again...

How can we distinguish these two from each other?
He appears because of Her,
And She exists because of Him.

We cannot tell sugar from its sweetness,
Nor camphor from its fragrance.

To capture light we take hold of fire.
To capture the Supreme Shiva we must take hold of Shakti.

Light illumines the Sun,
But the Sun itself creates that light.
The glorious Sun and its light are one and the same.

An object has a reflection:
When looking we see two images, yet there is only one thing.
Likewise, this work is a reflection of the Supreme Lord.

We may see two, yet only One exists...

Shiva and Shakti are One,
Like air and the wind,
Like gold and luster.

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
They are like musk and its fragrance, like fire and its heat.

In the light of the Sun there is no difference between day and night.
In the light of the Supreme Truth there is no difference between Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva and Shakti envy the Primordial Sound "OM" because they are seen as two while the sound OM is always regarded as One.

Jnanadeva says,
"I honor the union of Shiva and Shakti, who devour this world of name and form like a sweet dish.
All that remains is the One."

- by Jnanadeva from "The Inner Treasure" by Jonathan Star





SHIVA
The archetypal masculine
The Seer
Pure witness consciousness
Pure being
The One
Transcendent
The still point
Spirit
The unmanifest
The sun
Light
Nirguna Brahman
Unity
Wave
Consciousness


-----------------


SHAKTI
The archetypal feminine
The Mother
Pure embodiment
Pure becoming
The many
Immanent
The dance
Matter
The phenomenal world
The moon
Dark
Saguna Brahman
Multiplicity
Particle
Energy



By Swami Tyagananda 
at Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India





Mother of All Things
The universe had a beginning
Called the Mother of All Things.
Once you have found the Mother
You can know her children.
Having known the children,
Hold tightly to the Mother.

Your whole life will be preserved from peril.
Open up the openings,
Multiply your affairs,
Your whole life will become a burden.

Those who see the small are called clear-headed;
Those who hold to gentleness are called strong.

Use the light.
Come home to your true nature.
Don't cause yourself injury:
This is known as seizing truth.

- Lao Tzu







November 10, 2015

Kali Ma


KALI THE MOTHER

The stars are blotted out,
The clouds are covering clouds,
It is darkness vibrant, vocal.
In the roaring, whirling wind
Are the souls of a million lunatics
Just loose from the prison-house,
Wrenching trees by the roots,
Sweeping all from the path.
The sea has joined the fray, 
And swirls up mountain-waves, 
To reach the inky sky. 


The flash of lurid light 
Reveals on every side 
A thousand, thousand shades 
Of Death begrimed and black — 
Scattering plagues and sorrows, 
Dancing mad with joy, 
Come, Mother, come! 
For Terror is Thy name, 
Death is in Thy breath, 
And every shaking step 
Destroys a world forever. 


Thou Time, the All-Destroyer! 
Come, O Mother, come! 
Who dares misery love, 
And hug the form of Death, 
Dance in Destruction's dance, 
To him the Mother comes. 


- By Swami Vivekananda











Sri Ramakrishna describes his first vision of the Mother:
"I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her in this life. I could not bear the separation from Her any longer. Life seemed to be not worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother's temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed Herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush and collapsed, unconscious. What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother." On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mother". http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/introduction.htm










"Every Manifestation of Power 
In the Universe is Mother.
She is Life."

- Swami Vivekananda












January 12, 2015

Fear Not!





Banish all fear and weakness. Never weaken your mind by thinking of past mistakes. Sin? Sin exists only in man's eye. In God's eye there is no sin. One glance of the divine and the sins of many, many births are wiped away.

The greatest strength of character is to live in harmony with all. Never utter one word that would hurt another. Tell the truth, but never a harsh truth.

Life is like a stream, fast ebbing away. The day that is once gone can never be recalled. Make the best use of your time. If you leave it till the last moment, it will be too late to cry, "Alas, alas!"
- Swami Brahmananda



- - - - - -  


Swami Vivekananda's letter to Swami Brahmananda

(Translated from Bengali)

U.S.A., 20th November, 1899


MY DEAR RAKHAL,

Got some news from Sharat's letter. . . . Get experience while still there is a chance; I am not concerned whether you win or lose. . . . I have no disease now. Again. . . . I am going to tour from place to place. There is no reason for anxiety, be fearless. Everything will fly away before you; only don't be disobedient, and all success will be yours. . . . Victory to Kali! Victory to the Mother! Victory to Kali! Wah Guru, Wah Guru ki Fateh (Victory unto the Guru)!

. . . Really, there is no greater sin than cowardice; cowards are never saved — that is sure. I can stand everything else but not that. Can I have any dealings with one who will not give that up? . . . If one gets one blow, one must return ten with redoubled fury. . . . Then only one is a man. . . . The coward is an object to be pitied.

I bless you all; today, on this day sacred to the Divine Mother, on this night, may the Mother dance in your hearts, and bring infinite strength to your arms. Victory to Kali! Victory to Kali! Mother will certainly come down — and with great strength will bring all victory, world victory. Mother is coming, what dear? Whom to fear? Victory to Kali! At the tread of each one of you the earth will tremble. . . . Victory to Kali! Again onward, forward! Wah Guru! Victory to the Mother! Kali! Kali! Kali! Disease, sorrow, danger, weakness — all these have departed from you all. All victory, all good fortune, all prosperity yours. Fear not! Fear not! The threat of calamity is vanishing, fear not! Victory to Kali! Victory to Kali!

VIVEKANANDA

PS: I am the servant of the Mother, you are all servants of the Mother — what destruction, what fear is there for us? Don't allow egoism to enter your minds, and let love never depart from your hearts. What destruction can touch you? Fear not. Victory to Kali! Victory to Kali!



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November 2, 2013

Ramakrishna and Goddess Kali

Kali and Sri Ramakrishna in the Panchavati 
grove at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple

Why is Mother Kali so radiantly black?
Because she is so powerful,
that even mentioning her name destroys delusion.
Because she is so beautiful,
Lord Shiva, conqueror of death,
lies blissfully vanquished,
beneath the red soled feet.
There are subtle hues of blackness,
But her bright complexion
is the mystery that is utterly black,
overwhelmingly black, wonderfully black.
When she awakens in the lotus shrine
within the heart’s secret cave,
her blackness becomes the mystic illumination
that causes the twelve petal blossom there
to glow more intensely than golden embers.
Her lovely form is the incomparable
Kali black blacker than the King of Death.
Whoever gazes upon this radiant blackness falls eternally in love
and feels no attraction to any other,
discovering everywhere only her.
This poet sighs deeply,
“Where is this brilliant lady, this black light beyond luminosity?
Though I have never seen her, simply hearing her name,
the mind becomes absorbed completely in her astonishing reality."
Om Kali!  Om Kali!  Om Kali!

 - by Ramprasad Sen -

Version by: Lex Hixon From Mother of the Universe 
“Visions of the Goddess and Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment”

November 13, 2012

Kali

Kali made an appearance at the 2012 Santa Barbara Solstice Parade






Who in this world
can understand what
Mother Kali really is?
The six systems of philosophy
remain powerless to describe Her.
She is the inmost awareness
of the sage who realizes
that Consciousness alone exists.
She is the life blossoming within
the creatures of the universe.
Both macrocosm and microcosm
are lost within Mother's Womb.
Now can you sense
how indescribable She is?

The yogi meditates upon Her
in the six subtle nerve centers
as She sports with delight
through the lotus wilderness
of the pristine human body,
playing with Her Consort,
Shiva, the Great Swan.

When anyone attempts to know Her,
the singer of this song laughs.
Can you swim across
a shoreless ocean?

Yet the child in me still
reaches out to touch the moon.

September 4, 2011

Divine Mother Durga



Glory be to the Divine Mother Durga, remover of our distress and sorrow.

Glory be to Mother Kali, destroyer of all darkness and shame.
Glory be to the Goddess Uma, companion of Lord Brahma; 
Glory be to the incarnations of purity and love Sri Radha, Sri Sita, and Sri Rukmini.

Glory be to my spiritually compassion Mother Sri Sarada Devi, 
divine companion of Sri Ramakrishna, bestower of all knowledge and devotion.
I bow down, again and again, to the incarnations of Shiva and Shakti, 
embodiments of all peace and blessedness.

August 29, 2011

Glory to Sri Ramakrishna

Glory be to Sri Ramakrishna, excellent teacher, 
master of renunciation; glory to his spiritual companion 
Sri Sarada Devi, embodiment of supreme power. 
Glory be to Ramakrishna, who practiced loving worship 
of the divine Mother Kali, who readily takes me 
across the ocean of delusion. 
Glory be to Ramakrishna, who received sannyasa 
from the teacher of men Totapuri; and soon attained 
that divine ecstasy in which he ever remained. 
Glory be to Ramakrishna, the teacher of the entire world, 
the dust of whose feet saves me from drowning in 
the ocean of misery and sorrow. 
Glory be to Sri Ramakrishna, the embodiment of religion, 
foremost incarnation, establisher of righteousness. 
Glory be to the Great Master; Glory be to the Divine Mother; 
to all the devotees, and to all beings.